HIT THE ROAD

Cooney begins this latest outing as a rather sweet comedy that evolves into her patented suspense caper. Brit, 16, has just received her driver’s license when she’s thrust into a criminal enterprise concocted by her 86-year-old grandmother. Sent to stay with grandma while her parents take a trip to Alaska, Brit no sooner arrives than she learns that grandma intends to kidnap an elderly friend to help her escape the woman’s apparently unloving son. Grandma has rented an SUV and talks Brit into driving on terrifying highways from Long Island to Massachusetts. Soon Brit learns that the son indeed is dangerous, and that Brit is far too involved in an enterprise that might ruin her whole life. Along the way, Brit learns to respect her grandma’s fading generation for their courage and love. An unexpected, touching and effective sojourn from the always entertaining Cooney. (Fiction. YA)